This Washington
Democrat Pelz to Disclosure Commission: Do Your Job
At tomorrow's Public Disclosure Commission meeting, the Washington State Democratic Party will urge the PDC to reject its own staff recommendation to dismiss complaints against the conservative group Americans for Prosperity Washington.[pullquote]"The recommendation is disappointing considering it was authored by regulatory watchdogs charged with enforcing our registration and disclosure requirements."—State Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz[/pullquote]
Last year, the Democrats and the Sierra Club filed complaints against AFPW, the local affiliate of the Koch Brothers' Tea Party group, Americans for Prosperity, after the group did mailers without registering as a political committee or revealing its donors.
On Friday, commission staff recommended dismissing the case on the grounds that AFPW didn’t fit the definition of a political committee (they didn’t receive contributions to oppose or support specific candidates) and that the mailers did not constitute political independent expenditures (because they didn’t urge a specific vote) or electioneering (because the cost of the mailings didn’t exceed the $5,000 threshold).
In testimony submitted to the commission today, Democratic Chair Dwight Pelz writes:
Pelz believes the commission is being naive, pointing out why he believes AFPW was, in fact, urging specific votes as opposed to more generic issue advertising:
AFPW did eventually report $30,000 in donations. Then-AFPW chair Kirby Wilbur, who now chairs the Washington State Republican Party, defended the campaign in an interview with the Tacoma News Tribune last January.
Last year, the Democrats and the Sierra Club filed complaints against AFPW, the local affiliate of the Koch Brothers' Tea Party group, Americans for Prosperity, after the group did mailers without registering as a political committee or revealing its donors.
On Friday, commission staff recommended dismissing the case on the grounds that AFPW didn’t fit the definition of a political committee (they didn’t receive contributions to oppose or support specific candidates) and that the mailers did not constitute political independent expenditures (because they didn’t urge a specific vote) or electioneering (because the cost of the mailings didn’t exceed the $5,000 threshold).
In testimony submitted to the commission today, Democratic Chair Dwight Pelz writes:
The report and recommendation is disappointing, especially when considering that it was authored by our state regulatory watchdogs, charged under state law with enforcing our robust registration and disclosure requirements. Enforcing the statute would not have restricted anyone's ability to speak or to make views known in the weeks preceding the election; it would merely have required the disclosure of the source of the funds used to produce these materials.
Pelz believes the commission is being naive, pointing out why he believes AFPW was, in fact, urging specific votes as opposed to more generic issue advertising:
AFPW delivered the ... flyers one month before the election; the flyers were the first and only time AFPW distributed any material to Washington voters; AFPW targeted only Democratic candidates (13 of them); and only officeholders up for election or reelection were targeted.
AFPW did eventually report $30,000 in donations. Then-AFPW chair Kirby Wilbur, who now chairs the Washington State Republican Party, defended the campaign in an interview with the Tacoma News Tribune last January.
